Joel Belz, the founder of WORLD Magazine, responded to an inquiry about “homophobic” content in his magazine by defending the anti-gay material and claiming that the “homosexual agenda” is “an extreme in-your-face challenge to God’s order.” Belz defended WORLD, which named ex-gay activist Alan Chambers the “2011 Daniel of the Year” and derided supporters of marriage equality as “forces of anarchy” who are “undefining the family,” for standing up to “the armies of homosexual advocacy,” which he claims now “have nothing left to conquer but the kindergarten class down the street” as the “battles” in the literature, entertainment, media, education and mainline churches “are long since over.” “If heterosexual immorality is like driving 85 mph in a 35 mph zone,” Belz writes, “then homosexual immorality is like going 85 mph the wrong way on a one-way street.”
Eric, from Ohio, is very upset with WORLD in general and me in particular. “I’ve been a reader for 12 years or more,” he says, “and now I get the distinct impression that you are becoming more, not less, homophobic with every issue. Does gay-bashing really give you that much satisfaction?”
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Yet saying all that, we dare not lose sight of two other facts about the contemporary homosexual agenda. The first is that it is an extreme in-your-face challenge to God’s order. We learn that both from the Bible and from common sense. As we’ve noted here before, if heterosexual immorality is like driving 85 mph in a 35 mph zone, then homosexual immorality is like going 85 mph the wrong way on a one-way street. Never mind what prompts you to drive the wrong way; just doing it is dangerous. We’re no more judgmental saying that than we are when we encourage folks to avoid any behavior that is demonstrably destructive—spiritually, emotionally, or physically.
The other important aspect of the current homosexual agenda is its zeal to establish itself as normal. It’s bad enough when wrongdoers work hard to keep their wrongdoing secret. When instead they flaunt what they do, and pull out all the stops to make it public, then society has problems of a different order.
For decades now, we’ve witnessed an all-out effort to portray homosexual behavior as typical and mainstream. It’s pointless to worry about battles being waged in literature, the library systems, the entertainment industries, the information media, fashion, higher education, and most of the liberal churches—for the battles in those venues are long since over. When the armies of homosexual advocacy have nothing left to conquer but the kindergarten class down the street, you know you’re almost certainly too late on the scene.
Homophobic gay-bashers? Not really, Eric. But realistic about what’s happening all around us? Indeed, yes. And I hope we say that these days with a tear—and never anything you might mistake for a leer.
